The Bethany College Museum was on a par with other American...university museums ... having been influenced by the Victorian Era.For a college to have a museum gave it greater credibility and standing as an important influential institution of learning!

Swensson's Museum1882 - 1967The Swedish CuratorsDr. Leon Lungstrom

Under Swedish American Bethany College founder and second president Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson, the first organized society at Bethany College was not in the field of art or music. It was in the field of science and established as the Linnean Association in 1884!

From page 11 of Swedish American Bethany College President Emory Lindquist's 1975 book, Bethany in Kansas the history of a college we read the following:

"...The Linnean Association, organized in 1884, was the first society established on the campus. Named after Carl von Linnaeus** [1707-1778], the famous Swedish botanist, the organization was designed to promote interest in scientific knowledge among its members and to collect specimens for the museum. The first leader was first [Swedish American] Bethany College President Edward Nelander. The corresponding secretary was J. A. Udden, founder of the museum and first Bethany teacher. "

Johan August Udden, born in Lekasa, Västergötland, Sweden, graduate of Augustana College in 1881, had previously founded the Bethany College Museum in 1882, becoming its first curator. Shown below at the Bethany College Museum during its early days is part of the 300 items consisting of Udden's American Indian pottery collection.

In 1888, first curator Johan August Udden, returned to Rock Island, Illinois, Augustana College to teach before going off to Texas to make a name for himself, to make the University of Texas rich, and to be knighted by the Swedish Crown in 1911! Swedish professor Jacob Westlund became the second curator until 1891 when Swede John Eric Welin, a professor of Emil O. Deere's, became the third curator until 1908. Welin was described as "meeting the exacting requirements of a Christian professor of science" by third Swedish American Bethany College President Ernst Pihlblad. Emil O. Deere became the fourth and last curator in 1908 until his death fifty-eight (58) years later, in 1966.

* * *

The Swedish Curators

Udden Westlund Welin

1882 - 1888 1888 - 1891 1891 - 1908

Deere

1908 - 1966

* * *Go HERE to learn more on Udden, Welin and Deere in Lungstrom'sRecognition of Three Pioneer Scientists of Swedish Descent * * *

From its Bethany Academy beginnings to its Old Main ending, the Bethany College Museum's development and ongoing preservation must have been a labor of love with those caring and highly educated Swedish curator professors and their student collectors, not to mention the attention it was getting through the correspondence flowing back and forth from other scientists elsewhere in Kansas and beyond, discussing museum exhibits and new finds during the era of the late 19th into the middle of the 20th centuries.

There is not doubt that the Bethany College Museum was on a par with other American college and university museums of those times. They all had been influenced by the Victorian Era and were designed accordingly to collect examples of the different fields of knowledge and to classify them for research and display purposes. This was especially true in developing their own natural history collections for the students to use.**** And, this was thus true of the Bethany College Museum!

Deere was well connected with the scientific community beyond Bethany as most probably were his predecessor museum curators. He joined the Kansas Academy of Science (KAS) in 1905, becoming a life member in 1925, and held offices including the president in the term 1940-1941 at which time, during the annual dinner, he delivered his Presidential Address on "CROWDING AND ITS EFFECT ON ORGANISMS" (Click ﻿HERE﻿ to read it.)

Also, Deere joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1906 and later in life represented the KAS at the AAAS national meeting. In 1942 he was granted an honorary alumni membership to the Sigma Xi Research Society.

In 1904, it must have been a thrill for him to pick up an account of the "Smithsonian Institution" (scroll to end) while visiting the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis World's Fair) in St. Louis, a city he was familiar with due to the year 1901-1902 when he had attended the St. Louis Manual Training School in Washington University being sent there by Dr. Carl Arron Swensson for special studies to prepare him for technical work and teaching at Bethany College.

No doubt, Deere was very proud to have this museum narrative, and would eventually apply what he had learned in it to the College Museum for that institution at Bethany College like the one in Washington D.C. was established for one reason: "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge" to mankind, i.e. to the Bethany College family and the Kansas Smoky Valley residents!"*****

OLD MAIN(Designed by architect Swedish American Lawrence Gustuv Hallberg of Chicago who patterned the roof after Stockholm’s Grand Central Hotel)THE LAST SITE OF SWENSSON'S BETHANY COLLEGE MUSEUM CREATED & MAINTAINED BY SWEDISH PROFESSORS & STUDENTS

Photograph by Lydia Sohlberg Deere, c1920s

The final chapter for this fine museum would come with the College plan to raze its home, Old Main, in 1968, for the building of the new Wallerstedt Learning Center. In the Museum's eighty-two (82) years of existence, Deere would be its last curator, and his assistant Swedish American professor of biology Dr. Leon Lungstrom would be destined to play a major role in the disbursement of its collections. Add to that, Lungstrom would also be destined to become the sole unofficial first and last historian of the Museum.

Dr. Lungstrom's close association with Deere who had the longest link to Bethany's history probably more than anything, gave him an appreciation and a perspective for the value of college history, especially after having experiencing other universities after graduating from Bethany in 1940, i.e. Kansas State University in 1946, where he would received a M.S. degree in Zoology and Parisitology and then there in 1950, his Ph.D. in Medical Entomology, later on at New Orleans' Tulane University and California's Stanford University where he continued his postgraduate work.

These experiences and then his employment at Bethany beginning in 1952 as an assistant biology professor which grew into other positions until 1981 when he retired, all sent him quietly to work in the late 1980s to write History of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, knowing all along that he could very well be the only person left to put down some words of history for his college that he so loved.

This work, this labor of love, he finished in 1990. Unfortunately, for reasons I can only guess at, he did not publish the book but had it typed and printed on his own for a limited audience, thereby resulting in a most "rare and valuable," work for today, as the College library only has two (2) copies.

In his chapter on The Museum, Lungstrom writes that Deere, at eighty-nine (89), was preparing for the Museum's final end, for the distribution of its two major collections, the Natural History Collection which would include the taxidermy specimens; and the Pioneer Collection which would include museum founder Udden's American Indian Collection of 300 items and Emil O. Deere's Pioneer Life Collection of 900 items. There would be a total of about 5,000 Bethany College Museum items added to the 500 items at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1967.

With well planned out directives, Deere worked diligently with colleagues and friends Swedish American Bethany College seventh president Dr. Kenneth Andeen; professors of biology Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Dr. Glenn Bellah; professor of history Jerry Shannon; professor of Physics Emeritus Christian Swenson; and Bethany graduate Sandzén Memorial Gallery Co-director artist Carl Peterson for the move to take place in 1967.

* * *

Some of the specifics of the agreement between the College and the County for this move are found recorded in the1966 Bethany Magazine highlighting October Homecoming article, Old Dobbin Moves, as recorded below:

"The Bethany College museum has found a new home. "An agreement was signed in August by Bethany College officials and the McPherson County Commissioners for the purpose of displaying the college museum collection in the McPherson County Old Mill Park Museum located in Lindsborg. "The Bethany College museum collection consists of artifacts, relics, pioneer material, Indian collection, historical documents and several thousand miscellaneous items. The Bethany museum has been housed on the first floor of Old Main for several years. "The late Dr. Emil O. Deere was curator of the museum for over 50 years. "Because of the safe keeping and maintenance of the museum, Bethany College wanted to obtain a more suitable place for the housing and viewing of the outstanding collection. "The collection which is on loan will be known as the “Bethany College Collection.” "The agreement between the College and McPherson County is a ten year lease and a stipulation to build a fire resistant building to display and house the collection within the next two years. "The Smoky Valley Roller Mill and its property was made a county park about four years ago. “Tib” Anderson, McPherson, became curator and manager of the county park when the transition was made. "The Old Mill complex now consists of four buildings – the Old Runbeck Mill, a power house, a log cabin built in the 1870s and the present museum. “The present plans are to build a 40 by 60 foot building to house the collection and to move in the “Sweadal,” McPherson County’s first court house,” Anderson said. He also said that the McPherson County Engineer has made test borings for footings. "Plans are now to make the building functional and to keep it along the same décor as the other building. “ 'At the present time we are open six months of the year. However, when thinking of expansion there will be a possibility of putting in central heating and air conditions. This will enable us to open year-around,' stated Anderson.Since late spring, over 3,000 visitors have been through the museum from almost every state. "The County Old Mill Park Museum has 500 items which are mostly of the pioneer era. It has been estimated that the Bethany College Collection has over 5,000 items. Items on loan to the county museum will be primarily pioneer, local historical, and local area Indian artifacts, and relics. "Some of the collections from the College Museum will remain on the campus. Anderson said there will be few duplication in the collection and much of the material will be exhibited in a rotation system. "Among some of the items will be the first patent adding machine which was invented by a Bethany professor. “ 'After the move of the museum materials from the college to the County Old Mill Park Museum is finished and a building completed, you will find one of the finest museums of this kind in the mid-west,' stated Anderson.' "

* * *

Dr. Leon LungstromUnofficialActing Museum Curator1966 - 1967 - for the Bethany College Museum Collection move of 5,000 itemsto be added to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum Collection of 500 items -

Source: The Cochran Papers

Without Dr. Lungstrom's book, there would be very little college history on the museum.+Go HERE to read about THE MUSEUMinHistory of Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.

* * *

It is very clear that because the collections were so important to those Bethany College professors and leaders of that time that a stipulation was agreed upon by Tib Anderson with the College which read "that if the [County] museum is ever discontinued or moved out of Lindsborg, ownership of the items donated will revert back to Bethany College."******

To see where the Bethany College Museum Collections moved to in 1967 click HERE.

* * *Inside Swensson' Bethany College Museum in Old Mainwith last official Swedish curator, from 1908 to 1966, professor Dr. Emil O. Deere, at 88

From Bethanian 1965 Yearbook

* * *A Piece of Smithsonian Inspiration for the Bethany College Museum

Source: The Deere Papers

Inside the first page of this 1904 Smithsonian book that Deere was given while attending the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the World's Fair) in 1904, is written the following:

--George Washington, 1796Promote then as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.--in proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

--James Smithson, 1826I then bequeath the whole of my property * * * to the United States of America to found at Washington under the name of the Smithsonian Institution an establishement for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

--John Quincy Adams, 1836Let the trust of James Smithson to the United States of America be faithfully executed by their representatives in Congress; let the result accomplish his object --the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

* * *

+It is interesting to note that Emory Lindquist 1975 book, Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college has nothing on the College Museum.*The McPherson County Old Mill Museum Director quote from Wichita's Antique & Collectors Mart, text by Lindsborg's Betty Hanson, September 1976**For more on the European renown extraordinarily gifted Swedish botanist, Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778), these Bethany Swedes wanted to recognize and honor with their newly organized science association, go HERE.*** Page 23 of Dr. Leon Lungstrom's 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas****Wikipedia on Museum, Purpose***** Page 1, An Account of the Smithsonian Institution, 1904 ******Page 31 on The Museum chapter found in Dr. Leon Lungstrom 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.

Sources for information on the Swedish Bethany College photographs comes from Swedish American fourth Bethany College president Emory Lindquist’s 1975 book, Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, and Swedish American Bethany College professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom's 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.